Blog: Brand-as-Business Bites™

1.122012

differentiation through specialization

brand-as-business bit: Next week I’m teaching a webinar, Why Small Business Needs Brands and How to Build Them, as part of a Marketing Profs University course on Marketing Your Small Business. Here’s a sneak preview:

One of the topics I will cover is how to differentiate — and among the approaches I will discuss is specialization. By designing your business to appeal specifically to a certain type of customer, you become known as an expert for that market and stand out from the crowd.

An example: When I did a Google search for website agencies in my city, I got over 8000 results. Now that’s probably not an accurate number of actual agencies in town — but I can imagine there are at least 100 and they all seem exactly the same. They all seem to be saying and offering the same things – effective, innovative, well-designed websites.

But then there’s City Gates, an agency that specializes in making websites for churches. They’ve developed a real expertise in knowing the kinds of features, content, and designs that churches want and need – and this expertise separates them from the crowd.

If you were a church, which agency would you pick – one who specializes in serving organizations like yours or a generic one? That’s the power of differentiation through specialization.

(P.S. If you’re interested in learning more about Marketing Your Small Business, register for the course and use my code BRANDASBIZ to get $200 off!)

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